Shock impact frangible arrowhead



Dec. 12, 1961 c. A. SAUNDERS 3,012,786

' SHOCK IMPACT FRANGIBLE ARROWHEAD Filed March 10, 1959 INVENTOR. CHARLES A. SAUNDERS AT TO R NEYS United States Patent 3,012,786 SHOCK IMPACT FRANGIBLE ARROWHEAD Charles A. Saunders, Box 102, Columbus, Nebr. Filed Mar. 10, 1959, Ser. No. 798,363 4 Claims. (Cl. 273-1065) This invention relates to arrowheads and more specifically to arrowheads which, when aflixed to an arrowshaft, kill or bring down small game by a shock impact rather than by the penetration of the arrowhead.

The common type of penetrating arrowhead is not well suited for hunting small game because, among other reasons, the penetration by the arrowhead disrupts the physical configuration of the game shot, reducing its value for use as food or for mounting as a trophy. Moreover, the subsequent removal of the penetrated arrow, particularly if the arrowhead is barbed or is barblike, is often difficult and frequently causes additional damage of a nature similar to that caused by the arrowheads entry. In addition, many such arrows shot at small game on the ground are broken by striking stones or the like because the usual penetrating arrowhead transmits the full shock of impact to the arrowshaft. Previously known blunt or shock-impact arrowheads have tended to carom rather harmlessly off of the intended target unless a substantially direct hit is made.

According to the invention, the foregoing and other dilficulties are overcome by providing the arrowhead with a blunt impacting surface preceded by a number of small protrusions which effect a limited penetration into the fur, feathers, or skin of the target to minimize the tendency toward caroming off, while causing only minor or negligible physical disfiguration.

Further, in the illustrated preferred form, the improved shock-impact arrowhead comprises substantially two concentric body portions, an inner one contacting the arrowshaft, and an outer one having the major im pact-delivering surface, with the two portions being connected for separation under stress by a weaker portion rupturable by an impact force less than that likely to break the arrowshaft.

The foregoing and other objects and features of this invention and the manner of attaining them will become more apparent and the invention itself will be best understood, by reference to the following description of an embodiment of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings comprising FIGS. 1 to 5, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a side view of an arrow equipped with an arrowhead according to the invention;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are a front view and a side view of the arrowhead of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of the arrowhead of FIGS. 1 to 3 about to be attached to the arrowshaft of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 shows the structure of FIG. 4 after the parts are mutually attached.

Referring to the drawings, the arrow of FIG. 1 comprises a shaft A (usually of selected straight-grained wood) equipped with the usual guide vanes or feathers B, and a detachably secured shock-impact arrowhead H according to the invention.

Arrowhead H is preferably a one-piece molded plastic body having two concentric oppositely tapered body portions 1 and 2. Outwardly tapered outer body portion 1 supports the major impact delivering surface 4 from which extend the relatively short protrusions 5 having pointed ends 6. Inwardly tapered inner body portion 2 has a pointed end 3 which extends out beyond the major impact delivering surface 4 and protrusions 5, and is threaded on its interior female surface 7 for a secure threaded-like contact with the generally smooth tapered end C of the arrowshaft A. Body portions 1 and 2 are joined by a connecting portion 16 which is dimensioned to be weaker than either portion 1 or portion 2. The arrowhead will, therefore, break in at weaker portion 6 when subjected to a sufiiciently large impact force. The breaking strength of this connecting portion 16 is designed to be less than that of the arrowshaft A.

In FIG. 4, the pointed portion C of shaft A is shown unthreaded, while in FIG. 5, the same portion is shown with lines indicative of light threading resulting from screwing the parts together tightly by hand.

Under normal conditions of use of the arrow of FIG. 1, the extension 3 of the inner body portion 2 of FIGS. 2 to 5 makes first contact with the target. Extension 3 and one or more of the protrusions 5 normally effect a slight but effective anti-caroming penetration of fur, feathers, or skin of the small-game target, with the major impact being delivered by surface 4. The noted weaker connecting portion 6 is not intended to break under this normal use, since the small mass and generally yielding nature of a small game target does not build up a shock force likely to break the arrowshaft.

In the not uncommon situation where the intended target is missed and the arrowhead H accidentally comes in contact with an unusually hard nondeformable object such as a stone, if the consequently large impact force sustained by the impact delivering surface 4 tends to be of sufficient magnitude to break the shaft A of the arrow, the outer body portion 1 separates from inner body portion 2 along their connecting portion 16. The arrowshaft is, therefore, released from an impact loading which might cause the shaft to break. The extension 3 of the inner body portion 2 also absorbs energy as it is crushed, either before or at the same time that the outer body portion 1 is separated from the rest of the arrowhead, assuming the impact to be over to the entire frontal plane of the arrowhead H rather than to one segment of the impact-delivering surface 4.

When an arrowhead H is broken, as by striking a hard surface as above, such part thereof as remains attached may be removed from shaft A, whereupon a new arrowhead H may be attached as illustrated in FIGS. 4 and 5. It is contemplated that an arrowhead H is much more economically produced than an arrowshaft A which head H is designed to save from damage by breaking first.

While I have described above the principles of my invention in connection with specific apparatus, it is to be clearly understood that this description is made only by way of example and not as a limitation to the scope of my invention.

I claim:

1. A shock-impact arrowhead for detachable application to the front end of an arrow to kill small game by shock impact while protecting the arrow from breakage resulting from a hard object being struck by the arrowhead, the arrowhead consisting of a molded onepicce plastic member comprising two concentric portions joined together at the rear of the arrowhead, with the major part of the inner one of said portions being contained within and spaced inwardly from the outer one of said portions, the inner portion being in the form of the tip portion of a hollow cone having its large end facing rearwardly to receive the tapered forward end of an arrow with which it is to be used, the outer portion being in the form of the base portion of a hollow cone having its base end facing forwardly and providing a forward annular target-engaging surface, the outer portion including a series of short pointed target-penetrating portions dispersed around the forward annular surface and extending forwardly therefrom to minimize the tendency of the arrow to carom off the target, the arrowreceiving opening in the inner portion ending to the rear of the target-engaging annular surface to insure that the arrow does not engage the target until after the target-engaging surface does, the inner portion having a generally uniform wall thickness, the outer portion having a wall thickness which is greater at its forward end than that of the inner portion and which decreases progressively toward the rear to a portion-connecting wall thickness which is less that that of the inner portion, thereby providing a frangible wall section connecting the inner and outer portions which is weaker than either such portion and is weaker than the arrow, the inner portion having a small solid leading portion extending forwardly therefrom to a location forward of the pointed ends of the said target-penetrating portions to thereby normally first strike the target centrally with respect to the axis of the arrow.

2. A shock-impact arrowhead for detachable application to the front end of an arrow to kill small game by shock impact while protecting the arrow from breakage resulting from a hard object being struck by the arrowhead, the arrowhead consisting of a molded one-piece plastic member comprising two concentric portions joined together at the rear of the arrowhead, with the major part of the inner one of said portions being contained within and spaced inwardly from the outer one of said portions, the inner portion being in the form of the tip portion of a hollow cone having its large end facing rearwardly to receive the tapered forward end of an arrow with which it is to be used, the outer portion being in the form of the base portion of a hollow cone having its base end facing forwardly and providing a forward annular target-engaging surface, the outer portion including a series of short pointed target-penetrating portions dispersed around the forward annular surface and extending forwardly therefrom to minimize the tendency of the arrow to carom off the target, the arrowreceiving opening in the inner portion ending to the rear of the target-engaging annular surface to insure that the arrow does not engage the target until after the targetengaging surface does, the outer portion having a wall thickness which is greater at its forward end than that of the inner portion and which decreases progressively toward the rear to a portion-connecting wall thickness which is less than that of the inner portion, thereby providing a frangible wall section connecting the inner and outer portions which is weaker than either such portion and is weaker than the arrow.

3. An arrowhead for detachable mounting on the forward end of an arrowshaft to provide a shock-impact type of arrow, the arrowhead comprising an inner body portion attachable to the arrowshaft, an outer body portion spaced outwardly from and concentrically surrounding the inner body portion and mutually and integrally connected thereto at the respective rear ends of the said body portions, said outer body portion having an annular impact-delivering surface disposed forwardly of the front end of the arrowshaft, and a frangible interconnecting portion mutually and integrally joining the two body portions at the respective rear ends thereof, said frangible interconnecting portion and said mutually and integrally joined rear ends of said portions defining a notch which is of weaker construction that either body portion and of weaker construction than the arrowshaft, whereby shock absorbed upon hitting a hard object is dissipated in a severance of said body portions at said weaker notch.

4. An arrowhead for detachable mounting on the forward end of an arrowshaft to provide a shock-impact type of arrow, the arrowhead comprising an inner body portion attachable to the arrowshaft, and an outer body portion concentrically surrounding the inner body portion and mutually and integrally connected thereto at the respective rear ends of the said body portions, the outer body portion having an annular impactdelivering surface located forwardly of the front end of the arrowshaft and provided with a plurality of forwardly extending protrusions to minimize the tendency of the arrow to carom, said inner body portion containing an opening for receiving the arrowshaft and tapering to a generally pointed solid forward end which extends forwardly beyond said protrusions to establish initial contact with a target at a point along the axis of the arrowshaft, and a frangible interconnecting portion which mutually and integrally interconnects the rear end of the inner body portion to the rear end of the outer body portion and is weaker than either body portion and is weaker than the arrowshaft, the cross section of said mutually and integrally connected body portions and said interconnecting portion being a notch, whereby shock absorbed upon hitting a hard object is dissipated in a severance of said body portions.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,531,635 Maager Nov. 28, 1950 2,620,190 Bean Dec. 2, 1952 2,629,600 Edmonds Feb. 24, 1953 2,684,852 Romeka July 27, 1954 2,888,264 Sharrar May 26, 1959 2,925,277 Blanchette Feb. 16, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 51,009 Norway June 13, 1932 

